Probing Inflationary Cosmology with CLASS

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Sarah Marie Bruno is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to conduct a program of research and education at Johns Hopkins University. Bruno will develop new instrumentation for the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) telescope array to greatly enhance its sensitivity. The enhancements will enable sensitive measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization at large angular scales, allowing stringent tests of cosmological models of the early Universe. Bruno will also conduct a program of education and outreach for women in physics, middle and high school students, and science policy makers.Bruno will lead the development of two new detector arrays to increase the sensitivity of CLASS to B-modes in CMB polarization measurements. Detection of B-modes in the CMB would indicate a quantum origin for gravitational waves, and it would strongly support the theory of inflation. Bruno will also establish a peer mentoring group for early-career women in physics, develop modern science educational modules for middle and high school students, and provide scientific advice to inform policy initiatives on emerging technology.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.